The medal of honor Author:Charles King Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III ONLY JUST IN TIME THEN came a night no survivor of that episode, the siege of Tonto Pass, has ever been able to forget. The last drop of water ... more »was gone by sunset, the last scrap of bacon or hardtack long since devoured. It was too dark for those of the besiegers who would have been glad to steal in upon the suffering party. It was too light for any of the besieged to venture down in search of water. Three of the wounded became delirious before midnight. All of the defenders were worn and well-nigh exhausted. It was a mercy that the Apache is a coward when he cannot clearly see his way. Just before dawn there had come a gleam of hope, a drop of comfort. The moon had sunk behind the Matitzal. The signal fires that had been burning far to the west across the Coyotero died out before twelve, and others appeared ten or twelve miles to the north. Between the Tonto tanks and the east, the direction in which lay the reservation and the fort, rose the high, rugged range that stretched for many a league, a barrier between the sparkling, swift-rushing stream they had crossed with their prisoners now thirty-six hours agone and the broad valleyand more sluggish current of the Salado, a good day's march to the east. Signals from the reservation could not be seen on the west side of the Pass, but somebody was signaling to Dolan, signaling something those vagabonds about them should know without fail, for they were being repeated from a high point across the Coyotero Valley whence both the bold crest of Sombrero Peak, the Apache signal tower, and the westward face of the Tonto Range could readily be seen. " Those signals," said Dolan, " like as anything mean ' Look out!—Soldiers coming! "" Like as not they meant that Lafferty had managed to reach the post, give warning of the...« less